Kevin Norby Elected to Golf Architect’s Society

Chaska-based golf course architect Kevin Norby has been elected as an Associate member of the American Society of Golf Course Architects. According to ASGCA Membership Director Aileen Smith, he becomes one of only 175 ASGCA members worldwide.

Norby is now the only member of the ASGCA located in Minnesota. In fact,according to Smith, there are no other members headquartered in North or South Dakota, Iowa, Montana, Wyoming or Nebraska.

The recognition comes following a rigorous application process that includes review of four completed courses by current ASGCA members, discussions with project owners and a personal interview. It typically takes two years for an applicant to complete the process.

“It’s a great honor to be recognized by other golf architects and accepted into the Society,” Norby said.

Norby started his career as a land planner and landscape architect in 1976, but he didn’t discover golf course architecture until 1990, when he met Don Herfort, a Minnesota based golf architect and ASGCA Fellow. Don Herfort had suffered a heart attack while designing improvements at Superior National Golf Course in Lutsen, Minn. and Norby was asked to help finish the project.

For the next 10 years, Norby worked with Herfort, and was responsible for more than 80 projects throughout the central United States, Canada and the Caribbean. Herfort passed away in 2011. Today Herfort Norby is located in Chaska, Minnesota and specializes exclusively in the design of golf courses and long-range master planning for golf courses.

For his application to the society, Norby included:
* The Preserve, recognized in 2009 by Golf Inc. as the Best New Course of the Year and by Golf Digest, Golf magazine and Links magazine as top 10 best new course of the year.

* The Refuge Golf Club, recognized as one of the top public courses in Minnesota, and commended by the Department of Natural Resources for the design’s environmental sensitivity;

* Pleasant View Golf Course, Middleton, Wisc., which included a nine-hole expansion, new practice facilities and renovation of the existing golf course.

Herfort Norby Golf Course Architects currently has projects underway in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wyoming and Colorado. Norby recently completed a long-range master plan for Coal Creek Golf Course near Denver, Colorado and a new 9-hole addition at Rush Creek Golf Club in Minneapolis, Minnesota is scheduled to open in May of this year.